How to Apply for Your Part-66 Aircraft Maintenance Licence

Passing your modules is the long part of the journey, but the licence only exists once an authority issues it. If you are asking how to get an EASA Part-66 licence or a UK aircraft maintenance licence (AML), this guide covers the whole application: who is eligible, what evidence you need, how EASA Form 19 works with EU member state authorities, how the UK CAA's online application works, fees and processing times as of October 2026, and what limitations on a new licence mean.

Part-66 Prep is an independent study aid, not EASA, the UK CAA or any authority. Rules and forms change, so check your authority's own pages before you apply. For the wider career picture, see how to become an aircraft engineer.

Before you apply: the four requirements

A Part-66 licence needs four things. They are the same in the EU and UK rule texts, which you can read in the EASA Easy Access Rules for Continuing Airworthiness and the retained UK Part-66 on legislation.gov.uk.

Requirement	Rule	What it means
Age	66.A.15	At least 18 years old when you apply
Basic knowledge	66.A.25	Every module for your category passed at a Part-147 organisation or with the authority
Basic experience	66.A.30	Practical maintenance experience on operating aircraft for the required time
Time window	66.A.25(d)	Exams and experience completed within the 10 years before the application

Basic knowledge: your module passes

Each module for your category must be passed to the Appendix II standard, and each pass is evidenced by a certificate of recognition from a Part-147 approved maintenance training organisation or by authority exam results. The Part-66 modules guide lists the modules each category needs. If a pass is older than 10 years, it no longer counts on its own; the CAA can extend the validity in extenuating circumstances, for a £183 fee as of October 2026, and EU authorities can grant credits under 66.A.25(e).

Basic experience

The minimum depends on category and training route: for example 5 years without relevant training or 2 years after a Part-147 basic course for B1.1 and B2, and 3 years or 1 year for A, B1.2 and B3. At least one year must be recent experience on the category you are applying for. The experience requirements guide explains what counts and how to record it.

Key fact: In the UK, the "skilled worker" route that reduces experience (to 3 years for B1.1/B2, 2 years for A/B1.2/B3) is not available in practice: the CAA says it currently recognises no qualifying course.

Applying for an EASA Part-66 licence

EASA Form 19 and your member state authority

EASA itself does not issue Part-66 licences. Under 66.A.10, you apply on an EASA Form 19 (the template is in Appendix V to Part-66) to the competent authority of a member state, in the way that authority sets out. The EASA Part-66 FAQs confirm that the first application goes to the authority of one of the member states, with evidence of compliance, and that the member state sets the fees and how compliance is shown. Changes and renewals then go to the authority that issued your licence.

Which authority? Usually the one in the country where you live, work or trained. Licences are issued by the national authorities of the EU member states, plus Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Each publishes its own version of Form 19, its own guidance notes and its own fees.

As one checked example: the Irish Aviation Authority has processed all Part-66 applications through its MySRS online account system since 5 August 2024, issues licences electronically rather than on paper, and lists EASA Form 19 as the form for licence issue, renewal and amendment, with fees in its schedule of charges (IAA licensing pages, checked October 2026). Other authorities still use paper or email submissions, so read your authority's instructions.

What EU authorities typically ask for

Requirements vary, but expect to provide:

1. The completed Form 19, signed
2. Proof of identity
3. Certificates of recognition for every module, and your Part-147 basic course certificate if you are using the shorter experience route
4. Evidence of experience, usually a logbook or task record countersigned by your organisation
5. The application fee set by the authority

A maintenance organisation approved under Part-145 may, if the authority authorises it, prepare the licence or recommend the application on your behalf (66.B.105). The licence is still issued only by the authority.

Applying for a UK Part-66 licence

The UK CAA has been the only issuing authority for UK licences since 1 January 2021. Its process, per the CAA's application page as checked in October 2026:

1. Create a CAA Customer Portal account if you do not already have one.
2. Complete the aircraft maintenance licence online application once you meet every requirement. The legal form is still called CAA Form 19 in the rule text, but you fill it in through the portal.
3. Upload your evidence (see the table below).
4. Pay the fee: £455 per category or subcategory applied for.
5. If you already hold a licence (for example, when adding a category), post the original to the CAA's engineer licensing team at Crawley, quoting your application reference. The CAA will not start until it has it.

Evidence	What the CAA asks for
Identity	A colour selfie holding a valid passport, UK photocard driving licence or MOD 90/100 (a birth certificate is also needed with some ID for initial applications)
Exams	Certified colour copies of certificates of recognition or CAA results slips
Experience	Certified copies of your logbook or worksheets: CAP 741, SRG1007 or another format agreed with the CAA
Recommendation	Form SRG1029, completed by your quality manager or another person the CAA accepts, such as a UK Part-66 licence holder
Older EU training	EASA Form 11 copy, only for training with a non-UK EASA Part-147 organisation completed before 31 December 2022

The logbook is where applications most often go wrong. The CAA lists common rejection reasons: experience below the 66.A.30 minimum, lack of recent experience, large gaps in the timeline, entries not in ATA chapter order, no troubleshooting tasks, and military applicants without 12 months of civil experience. CAP 741, the CAA's engineer logbook, was reissued as version 4 in October 2026 with tasks aligned to the current syllabus; you can download it from caa.co.uk/cap741.

Certificates the CAA will not accept

The UK does not accept EASA Part-147 certificates of recognition dated after 31 December 2022. Certificates dated before then are accepted for 10 years from issue for basic modules, and 3 years for type training. Any later certificate must come from a UK Part-147 organisation, which can be located outside the UK. The CAA also lists specific organisations whose certificates it refuses. If you trained or sat exams in the EU, read the UK and EASA licence conversion guide before you apply.

Fees and processing times

UK CAA (as of October 2026)

Item	Fee
Grant of a licence, per category or subcategory	£455
Deduction if an application is rejected or withdrawn	£242
Adding a type rating	£183
Removing a limitation	£74
Exam credit extension	£183

Source: the CAA application pages and the CAA Scheme of Charges (ORS5) effective 1 April 2026. Exams and training are extra; the Part-66 licence cost guide adds them up.

The CAA's stated service level for an initial Part-66 licence is 31 working days: about 10 for a licensing officer's review, 20 for a surveyor's technical assessment and 1 for issue. If something is missing, the CAA may hold the application for up to 30 working days before rejecting it. Logbook problems feature heavily in the CAA's list of rejection reasons, so get yours checked by your quality department first.

EU authorities

Each authority sets its own fees and timescales. We do not quote figures we have not checked; look them up on your authority's site and allow extra time if your experience was gained in another country or outside a Part-145 organisation.

Experience from outside a maintenance organisation

Not everyone gains their experience in a Part-145 or Part-CAO organisation. Under 66.A.30(e), maintenance experience gained outside a civil aircraft maintenance environment can be accepted when the authority judges it equivalent, usually with some additional civil experience on top. Military engineers, engineers from FAR-145 repair stations and people who worked abroad all use this route.

The CAA says experience gained outside a UK Part-145 organisation can be accepted if it meets 66.A.30 and the CAA can verify it with the organisation concerned, and lists military applicants without 12 months of civil experience among its common rejection reasons. The practical lesson is to collect evidence while you can still get it countersigned: task records, supervisor details and the approval reference of each organisation. Chasing signatures from an organisation you left years ago is slow and sometimes impossible.

Common mistakes that delay an application

1. Applying before the experience is complete. Count the months from your start date, and remember at least one year must be recent experience on the category you are applying for.
2. A logbook that lists jobs, not tasks. Each entry should describe the task, the aircraft and the reference (job card or work order), and be signed by a supervisor.
3. No troubleshooting. B1 and B2 applications without fault-finding tasks are a listed rejection reason in the UK.
4. Module passes from the wrong system. UK applications cannot use EASA certificates of recognition dated after 31 December 2022, and EU authorities do not accept UK certificates as EASA ones.
5. Passes about to expire. A module passed nine and a half years ago may be outside the 10-year window by the time the application is assessed.
6. Missing original licence. When you change an existing UK licence, the CAA waits for the original to arrive in the post before it starts.

Limitations on a new licence

Limitations are exclusions from your certification privileges, printed on the licence (66.A.50). The most common ones on a first licence come from group ratings:

• B1 with a Group 3 rating (piston aeroplanes): unless you show appropriate experience, limitations for pressurised aeroplanes, metal-structure, composite-structure and wooden-structure aeroplanes, and metal-tube structures covered with fabric.
• B3: similar structure limitations on the B3 rating.

They are removed later by demonstrating the experience or passing a practical assessment by the authority. In the UK, removing basic category limitations costs £74 per application, needs at least 6 months of relevant experience in a CAP 741-style logbook and an SRG1029 recommendation, and for some limitations part-module exams. Licences converted from older national licences may carry other limitations removed by specific exams.

After the licence: type ratings and adding categories

A basic licence alone does not let you certify complex aircraft. For Group 1 aircraft such as airliners you need a type rating, which means approved type training and, for your first type in a category, on-the-job training. The Part-66 type ratings guide explains how that works.

To add a category later, for example B2 to an existing B1.1, you apply on Form 19 (in the UK, the same portal application), send the original licence, show the extra modules and the extra experience set in Appendix IV to Part-66. Your licence then runs for 5 years from its last issue or change, and you renew it administratively; see Part-66 licence renewal.

What to do next

1. Check which modules your category needs and which you still have to pass. The free licence categories note lists them alongside the experience rules.
2. Start or update your logbook now, in ATA chapter order, with troubleshooting tasks included.
3. Take a free diagnostic to see where you stand on the exams, for example the B1.1 diagnostic.
4. Practise each module on its free paper 1 and quick practice, for example Module 10 paper 1 and Module 10 quick practice, and use Pro for papers 2 to 10 when you need more.
5. When both exams and experience are complete, gather the evidence in the tables above and apply to your authority.